


another time

by laireshi



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-09
Updated: 2014-11-09
Packaged: 2018-02-24 18:31:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2591843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laireshi/pseuds/laireshi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They meet again years later, or maybe earlier, it's hard to tell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	another time

**Author's Note:**

> I miss them.
> 
> I imagined it's set after The End of Time, if Ten didn't regenerate.
> 
> Thanks, [Ania](http://crazyandsexy.tumblr.com)!

They meet again years later, or maybe earlier, it's hard to tell.

“You're alive,” the Doctor gasps out, almost unwillingly. Around him, the planet burns, and he doesn't care, because –

He's not alone. Again.

_Just regenerate!_

_Get out of the way._

How long will it last this time?

“I'm indestructible,” the Master says, his eyes glimmering with madness and the reflected fire. The Doctor shouldn't feel happy about it, but he can't help it.

_You left me_ , the Doctor thinks and doesn't say.

The Master laughs. “You left me first,” he says.

The Doctor won't apologise, but he can't say if he'd do it again. Not when he lost everything so many times. It's easy to forget the bad things when he spent years wishing he could change history, when he dreamt of taking up the Master's invitations when he was stuck in seventies, or was it eighties, that he saved the Master from the fire on Sarn, that he found a way to rip him out of the time lock.

What would become of them if he stayed on Gallifrey?

“You're doubting yourself,” the Master says. “The one thing you've always been sure of, and you're doubting it.”

The Doctor shakes his head. He won't let the Master provoke him, not about that. It's uncomfortably hot, and it's time the Doctor learn why. “What happened here?”

“Had to get your attention somehow, didn't I?” the Master says.

“Go with me,” the Doctor asks.

“I asked you that many times,” the Master says, squinting his eyes. “Why do you expect me to say yes when you never have?”

Because if the Master asked now, the Doctor wouldn't refuse.

Because they know now how it feels to be alone, really alone, without each other.

Because there are many futures they could have, and the Doctor is only interested in one.

Because they can fight across the universe, and they will, of course they will, that's the one constant in their relationship –

But they don't have to now, not for a while, they could use this time they shouldn't have, and let themselves run over the fields together, if only for a short while.

Because none of it really matters when they're facing each other.

Because the Master is going to say yes, because he hasn't said no yet.

Because, because, because, and the timelines shift around them.

The Doctor sees the one that convinces the Master, the one where they rule over the universe, and the Master must see the one that makes the Doctor not take his words back, the one when they protect it –

And neither of them will come real now, but –

“Let's try,” they say at once.


End file.
